e-GEOS, a company set up by Telespazio (80%) and the Italian Space Agency (20%), has been awarded a contract by the European Commission, worth 12 million, to provide satellite maps for emergency management. The contract, identified as Copernicus Emergency Management Service - Rapid Mapping, will be active in the 2015-2019 period.
The activity constitutes the operational service of the European Copernicus Earth Observation Program and represents a global uniqueness in the field of emergency management.
e-GEOS already in the 2012 was awarded the contract by the European Commission for the provision of such services in the three-year period 2012-2014. During this period the Copernicus Emergency Management Service was activated in more than 100 events, and produced over 1000 satellite maps related to 46 countries in Europe and worldwide.
Under the new contract, a consortium led by e-GEOS and formed by the German subsidiary GAF, the German Space Agency (DLR), partners Ithaca (Italy), Sirs and Sertit (France) will process and make available to the European Commission in a few hours from the activation of the service by the authorized user, satellite maps of areas affected by a natural disaster or humanitarian crises.
For the worldwide management of the Copernicus Emergency Management service, active 24 hours a day on 365 days a year, the consortium avails itself of a dedicated access to multimission satellite data activated between the European Union and the European Space Agency (ESA) ).
The European Commission makes available satellite maps, free of charge, to all users operating in Europe in the field of civil protection, emergencies and land management, facilitating damage assessment and management of relief interventions.
The Copernicus Program also assists international relief humanitarian operations, in collaboration with the United Nations, the World Bank and non-governmental organizations.
On the Copernicus portal, managed directly by the European Commission, the results of the service are published in almost real time in accordance with the Copernicus policy of sharing and reusing data.
Source: Telespazio
(photo: e-GEOS)